Meta

Moms Mystery Monday

It’s a mystery week here at Kat’s Corner books. Today I bring you another installment from my awesome mom, and tomorrow’s review will also be a mystery, so be sure to come back if you’re a mystery lover. Thanks, mom, for guest reviewing!

And, here’s mom:

Christmas is Coming.

The temperatures have started getting cooler and leaves are starting to change which means only one thing….fall will soon be followed by Christmas. Which means the wonderful Christmas movies hit TV and my reading turns to Christmas mysteries.

Last year I picked up a mystery by Joanne Fluke, “Candy Cane Murder”. Where a trail of candy canes leads to a dead Santa. I have always enjoyed her writing and her character Hannah Swensen, who owns The Cookie Jar. This time of year her inclusion of recipes is great for a new sweet baking tradition.

Unfortunately, I was just getting into the intrigue when the story hurriedly came to an end. This seemed odd with so many pages left in the book. It was then I realized this was a three story book. Two more books followed, one by Laura Levine and the other by Leslie Meier. So, on I plunged into “The Dangers of Candy Canes.”

The story starts with her trying to take a picture of her cat in a Santa hat. It was, of course, unsuccessful. I have two cats and could have told her it was a useless endeavor, so why it took a chapter to explain this dilemma confounds me. After this, it does not improve. The main character, Jaine Austen, talks to the readers and whines a lot which I find irritating. At chapter seven I gave up. By that point I simply didn’t care what happed.

Why these three books were put together I will never know, but at this moment all I can suggest is buy a cookie cook book instead and save yourself some disappointment.

Oh, and what about Leslie Meier’s last story? Can’t tell you. With Joanne’s abrupt ending of her story and Laura’s disappointing start to hers I didn’t bother to read the last.

Poor Leslie, not even getting a chance. Mom can be a tough critic sometimes; maybe I’ll be able to convince her to give Leslie a chance. It’s always tough when we don’t enjoy a book, especially when we like the author and have invested in them for just that reason. But, we all have down days, so as we head into fall, let’s give an author whose had a not-as-well-loved book another chance.

I grew up without computers so I still enjoy holding a good book. Enjoy the flopping of the pages and the smell of the paper and ink. Lately, I moved near a used book store and picked up a cozy mystery to read. Not only was it at half price but was also on clearance.

Reading Up a Storm by Eva Gates was perfectly situated in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The Bodie Island Lighthouse is home to a library and Lucy Richardson, the librarian, along with her feline companion, Charles. In my opinion a book can only be made better with a cat, in this case, a Himalayan.

When a former resident returns after he has made good strange things begin to happen and then he is found dead. What had happened so long ago that would make someone want to kill now?

This is an easy to read book and has chapters just long enough to read during a coffee break at work. I do want to pick up the first two in the series and see what brought Lucy back from Boston and to also find out how her love life continues. So I guess you could say I am hooked. All in all I would recommend this if you are a cozy mystery lover like I am.

And just in case you are a light house lover, go visit the real thing. The Bodie Island Lighthouse is in Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is a fully functioning lighthouse and if you wish to see the spectacular view you are welcome to climb the two hundred fourteen steps to the top. And no, it is not a library. That part, like this book, is fictional.

Misfortune blows into North Carolina’s Outer Banks when a dead body in a boat on the shore leaves local librarian Lucy Richardson racing to solve a strange new mystery….

After a successful party at Bodie Island’s Lighthouse Library, librarian Lucy Richardson is ready to curl up with her cat, Charles, and a good book. But her R and R is cut short when she notices some mysterious lights leading a small boat to crash into the coast. The two shipwrecked seafarers survive the ordeal—but one of them shows up dead ashore a few days later. Lucy finds herself again roped into a murder investigation and navigating a sea of suspects, all of whom had motives to deep-six the deceased. And this time, she has a sinking feeling that finding the real killer won’t be so easy…